An Energy Drinks Roundup?

NecroWraith asks: "Ok, I'm sure most folks on Slashdot have something they eat or drink that helps you stay awake far beyond what your body wants you to for, whatever reason: late night gaming sessions; late nights at work; or late nights in the pub. The big one now is energy drinks. I swear I see a new one on the shelf every week. Rockstar, Red Bull, Monster, Hansen's, Jolt, Red Jak, Lost, Sobe, Bawls, Amp, MDX, the list goes on. So, what have you tried, and what do you like? What tastes best? What works best? Which one is the best deal?"

Comments

No More Sugar!

[TheOtherAgentM]

I don't know if I'm the only one, who thinks like this, but I think a lot of computer jockeys, including myself are fat enough from sitting in front of a computer without needing a drink full of sugar. I just started going to the gym about two months ago, and that gives me more energy than those drinks.

Re:No More Sugar!

[arivanov]

This will not help you.

One of the main reasons for caffeine giving you a wake-up call is that it forces the liver to hydrolise glycogen into glucose. So you if you are drinking a caffeinated drink your blood sugar level will rise regardless of the sugar level of the drink. This will give your brain food as brain can consume only glucose (nothing else can traverse the hematoencephalic barrier). As a result you wake up.

In fact, I have found high-sugar containing fruit like grapes to be nearly as effective as a whole jug of expresso when waking me up. If I do not wake up by the end of the second expresso jug I usually munch down half a kilogram of grapes. That does it and usually does not stick on the "rubber ring" the way junk food does.

H2O

[chrismcdirty]

Water. And lots of it. I stay awake late nights by giving myself mini workout sessions in during load times or when my brain is feeling stressed from programming. The water keeps me feeling fresh.

It's also required that I walk back and forth to the bathroom multiple times during the course of a night.

Re:H2O

[misleb]

No kidding. I used to get real tired in the evening while driving. So tired that I would zone out and nearly fall asleep at the wheel. What's wierd is that I am find before and after getting in the car. It is just cars that make me sleepy. I tried coffee (i'm still sensitive to caffiene) and ephedrine. Nothing seemed to work very well. I would still space out. Then I discovered that all I needed was proper hydration. A bottle of water or sports drink (not energy drink) and I was good to go.

If hydration is the problem, caffeine can actually make the problem worse because it is a diuretic. I advise anyone who is having energy or concentration problems to try drinking more water and do some stretching.

-matthew

None of them

[Gulthek]

Exercise.

Take your vitamins.

Stick with coffee and drink it in moderation (1-2 cups per day).

Drink water when not drinking coffee.

We computer people already spend hours sitting relatively motionless at our desks. Adding calorie intensive drinks to that habit isn't the smartest thing to do.

Re:None of them

[Evangelion]

Stick with coffee ... (1-2 cups per day).

I think I'm going to need a bigger cup.

Re:None of them

[level_headed_midwest]

We computer people already spend hours sitting relatively motionless at our desks.

That's why you feel so sleepy and sluggish. You need to get up and around to get the blood flowing every once in a while. It is very hard being a desk jockey. I always make a point to keep the temperature cool (67 degrees) if I can and always have a jug of plain water nearby. The cool temps plus the water makes for a full bladder and that entices me to get up periodically. I also exercise quite a bit and after a while of doing it, you get more energy all the time. I do my running and weightlifting in the evening so that I am not tired during the day as exercise does wear you out after you do it.

I drink Google Gulp

[okmnji]

You only wish you had some of this... http://www.google.com/googlegulp/

None

[TheWanderingHermit]

I stopped taking all medications and all caffeine a few years ago. I find that I have more energy now and generally feel better than I used to. I will now take aspirin and if I were in need of medication for a serious issue, I'd take it, but I found that once I gave my body time to get used to healing itself for most things, I felt better. For example, I had problems with back pain and congestion/allergies and a runny nose. I found I adapted and was more likely to keep moving in spite of back pain when I stopped taking meds. I also found it was possible to focus and mentally relax many of the needed muscles and "release" the pain.

As for the sinus problems, when I went off meds, I had the "usual" problems a few weeks later, and just gave myself more time to rest. It took a few days, but then I felt fine. About a month later, I had sinus problems again, but they went away faster this time. That happened two or three more times, each time effecting me less and less and lasting less and less. My body had seemingly become conditioned to receiving meds to heal and soon learned to work the natural way. I started feeling better overall and found I had much more energy.

So I'd say my answer is what you don't want to hear: balanced diet and exercise, don't spend all your time in front of the computer (or only at the computer then the pub!), and don't continually push your body beyond what it tells you it can handle. If you do that, then when it comes time for those 48 hour coding sessions, you'll do fine and probably have more energy than most of your co-workers. You can be dependent on energy drinks and such or dependent on good health. I've picked the the latter. I'm not saying you should or have to, but I've found it is easier and works better all around.

H2O

[saskboy]

Don't abuse your body. If you're too tired to stay awake, then go to sleep. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture [sorry, "information rending"], and it makes you a dangerous driver too. Drink water, it's good for you [if it doesn't have a lot of THMs] and it will keep hangovers away. It will also keep you up if you have to go pee.

Unless you're trying to stay up to entertain a woman [or man if you're a woman I guess], then staying up really late using drugs just isn't worth it.

Iced Tea / Lemonaid

[Anonymous Monkey]

1/2 strong iced tea 1/2 lemonade (preferably with made with honey, not white sugar). I drink it because it tastes good, but I discovered it makes a great energy drink.

I didn't even think about this until one time at work I bought one for a coworker that moonlighted as a teacher at the fire academy. The next day he said he was running circles around his cadets, and he said the only thing he did different was to drink 32oz of what he called my "monkey brew." He started drinking one every afternoon before he went to teach and swore it was the best energy drink he ever had.

Enter my cube

[dazedNconfuzed]

Current count is 30 different energy drink cans on display in my cube, from an ongoing sampling of every kind I can get my hands on.

Best:
- Venom: best tasting of the bunch, actual flavor balancing quasi-bitter with sweet (but not sickly sweet).
- Amp: essentially "Distilled Mountain Dew", good flavor with strongest keep-awake effect I've found.
- Source Burn: a fine general energy drink with a few vitamins.
- Monster Khaos: actually contains 70% juice, tastes good.

Of note:
- Avoid the 16 oz. cans; they tend to have more "stuff" than some bodies can comfortably handle. Von Dutch has the strongest unpleasant aftereffect feeling (tastes pretty good though).
- RockStar is reportedly made by the/a son of Michael Savage (nutrition expert and political pundit) claiming it's the best balance of "energy" ingredients.
- Red Bull is the standard to measure all others against.

So far my collection includes in no particular order:
Large cans:
- Raw Energy Fuel
- MDX
- Extreme Energy Shot
- Lost
- Von Dutch
- Rooster Booster
- Horse Power
- Hansen's Energy Delux
- Full Throttle
- Monster
- Monster Khaos
- Monster Assault
- Rip It
- FirePowerEX
Small cans (preferred size):
- Crunk
- Donkey Kick
- Rush
- Amp
- Rooster Booster
- Hansen's Energy
- KMX
- ROX (Austrian)
- Red Bull
- RockStar
- Hair of the Dog
- Source Burn
- Diablo (Canadian)
- Sobe Adrenaline Rush
- Liquid Z
- Glaceau SmartWater

SmartWater is actually the best: just water, distilled & selected electrolytes - just what your body ACTUALLY needs.

Think of your heart/etc too

[ModernGeek]

You can't take time from your sleep, you can only borrow it. You will make up for it sooner or later whether it be in a few days, or a few years. Your body will start deteriorating as you get more and more reliant on these stimulants to keep yourself awake. The best bet is to do what the parent says, and get off your ass.

150 energy drink reviews

[wastedbrains]

If you google energy drink reviews my site comes up, whoopie something i can actually post about with knowledge on slashdot. http://www.bandddesigns.com/energy energy drink reviews Which I have run for years and it reviews about 150 energy drinks. I have tried about 175 and my thoughts My favorites overall: Go Fast, Monster Khaos, Monster Assualt, Rockstar, redbull sugar free There are tons of horrible drinks out there... avoid ones that are just high in sugar if you want energy your looking for caffiene, taurine, b vitamins, and perhaps some of the other herbs... I would warn to avoid most of the powers or tablet based drinks which tend not to be as effective, and many of the redbull knock offs are very good and half the price, but you need to look around because I have tasted some drinks that are like goat urine. I liked the flavor of guarana based drinks like bawls, but have found them to not give you as much energy, they do seem however to have a smoother effect that doesnt have a sudden crash like many of the other drinks like redbull. I also like some of the more natural and harder to find drinks like gorilla juice which is like a pumped up lemonade, which tastes nothing like the overly sugar added drinks that many of the others go for. I have even got to do some fun consulting for some small energy drink companies and was written up in investors business daily for an interview about the energy drink market. (Hansens makers of monster has done very well in the stock market earning up 300%)

Here's one that you should maybe stay away from

[Dixie_Flatline]

The original.

Here's the text of the review of Redline, though.

Quite Possibly the Most Powerful Energy Drink Ever
October 7th, 2005 3:34 pm

Seriously, the drink may mean the end of this blog. In the before time, conversations generally went a little something like this:

So, whats a good energy drink in terms of strength?

Well theres a lot to choose from, based on caffeine content, taurine, ginseng, green tea extracts

Well what if Im just interested in caffeine content?

Well just go to The Caffeine Database and look around!

The point, probably lost, is that theres a lot of drinks, in varying sizes and caffeine contents, that also contain a lot of other things.

So then this new thing came out. Its called VPX Redline Fat Burner. Amazon is lacking a little information, so heres a little more:

Check out this freaky scientific VPX breakthrough: RED LINE®: is the only matrix ever developed to shred fat through the shivering response in the body. By shivering the body burns huge amounts of stored bodyfat for energy in an effort to keep the body warm. Thats not all! In addition to shivering, youll also be sweating up a thermogenic storm. The combined mechanisms of these two processes results in unparalleled fat loss!

What fun. Now, its pretty obvious looking at the ingredients that theres caffeine. But get this: all of the aforementioned goodness, and the serving size is FOUR ml. About one TENTH of an ounce. The whole bottle has 240 ml, or 60 servings. Basically, a bottle of this, less than the size of a normal can of coke, WILL kill you. This is nothing to be playing around with.

I have friends. Not just normal friends, mind you. The kind of friends that voluntarily live on the streets. The kind of friends who, when drinking, race to forgetting. The kind of friends who take caffeine pills, ephedrine pills, and asprin.. all at once. One, in particular, drinks and consumes over a gram of caffeine daily, to stave off the headaches. So you know this is a serious review:

oh yeah, its definately 90% caffeine. the aftertaste is unmistakeable. the best part is that since i didnt have my normal dose this morning, i probably wont actually feel sh*t.

[10 minutes later]

the caffeine kicked in a lot faster than i expected. though in retrospect, it normally does when its in syrup form and tastes like ass.

feel oddly cold too. took me a minute to realize that while i still was warm, it was that shiver reflex kicking in. its a lot like when
you get a chill at the back of your neck, but somewhat continuous.

So whats in this magical bottle of awesome? Caffeine, Green Tea, Yerba Mate, 5-HTP (5 hydroxy-1-tryptophan), cAMP, Yohimbe, Evodiamine, and Vinpocetine. And a few other things.

I know, I know, so heres some more info:

cAMP is cyclic adenosine monophosphate. It supposedly sparks many intercellular processes. Whatever that means. Increased concentrations supposedly raise thyroid horomone levels, and help fat burning (would help explain why its in a fat-burning supplement).

Yohimbe is a bark extract from a tree in Africa. Its considered a natural aphrodisiac, and sold here to treat imotency, dialate pupils, and stimulate fat loss. It can also mess with your blood pressure, so watch out.

Evodiamine is derived from some Chinese fruit called Evodia Rutaecarpa. Supposedly burns fat.

Vinpocetine is an alkaloid derived from some periwinkle plant. It is used in Europe, Japan, and Mexico to treat crebrovascular and cognitive disorders. Some people claims it elevates metabolism, but with no proof.

And the interesting one in the group: 5-HTP. I made sure to spell it out, so the smart ones in the group have already figured out the key: Tryptophan. It